'Just exercise some caution': 10 tips for avoiding, or staying safe in, stormy waters

When Shelby Rushton heard Friday from a friend in Outlook, Sask., that two men had died after a boat capsized on Lake Diefenbaker during a storm the previous night, she thought, "Oh, boy, here's another one."

• 2 men dead after boat capsizes on Lake Diefenbaker amidst huge waves

An estimated six to eight people have now drowned in the province since January, says Rushton, the CEO of the Saskatchewan branch of the Lifesaving Society.

"And of course it's during National Drowning Prevention Week," she said of Thursday night's incident. "So it just serves as a good reminder that it can happen any time."

Throw in some stormy weather, though, and conditions can get even more dangerous.

To find out what people can do to stay safer on the water during a storm, CBC News gathered tips from Rushton; Ian Gilson, a director with the Canadian Safe Boating Council; and CBC Saskatchewan meteorologist Christy Climenhaga.  

Their suggestions cover four phases — before you go out on the water, while you're on a boat, when a storm hits and when you fall into the water — but are best summed up by Gilson:

"Just exercise some caution."

Before you go out

1. Don't just check the land-based forecast

Did you know that Environment Canada offers a special marine forecast? Most boaters don't, according to Gilson.

GILSON: "Along with the temperature and the winds, it also gives you things like what the wave heights are going to be and whether or not Environment Canada has issued what's known as a small vessel warning, which indicates that the winds and waves are between 20 to 33 knots."

CLIMENHAGA: "Environment Canada does provide marine forecasts for some larger lakes in the country, but conditions on Lake Diefenbaker are not forecasted."

2. Make sure you have properly-working life-jackets

RUSHTON: "Just make sure it doesn't have any tears, that all the buckles work and that it actually properly fits you. If can reach it up over your head when it's buckled up and you have it on, that jacket doesn't fit. It could flip over your head."

3. Wear them!

GILSON: Of Canada's 125 boating-related deaths per year (on average), "80 per cent are people that weren't wearing their life-jackets."

[Note: The two men who died on Lake Diefenbaker were both were life-jackets, according to the chief of the Elbow, Sask., fire department, which conducted the search for the two men.]

RUSHTON: "You don't have time when you're panicked and you're falling overboard and your capsizing to put it on, especially if you're not a strong swimmer to begin with. You're not going to be able to support your body and then trying to get this jacket over your head and done up."

On the water 

4. Know where the life-jackets are located on the boat

GILSON: "Before you go out, make sure you've got all your safety equipment, and make sure that everyone who's on the boat knows where that safety equipment is. And how to use it."

5. Keep watching the skies

RUSHTON: "Wherever you are, you've got to keep an eye on the sky and be listening to you weather reports on the radio and if you have your phone and you have access, check the weather at all times. In Saskatchewan, our weather changes drastically and it happens fast."

CLIMENHAGA: "When strong gusty winds pass over water, they create waves. The stronger the winds, the more dramatic the wave. In the cases of strong thunderstorms, as winds pick up very quickly, water conditions can change rapidly."

GILSON: "There might be slightly localized showers, but that can kick up a heck of a mess on the water."

During a storm 

6. Get to shore, but only if you can do so safely

RUSHTON: "If it's not too wavy, you could try to outrun the storm. But if the waves are getting up too high, you're going to need to change the speed of your boat because if you're going too fast over those waves, you're going to lose your manoeuvrability on the waves, on the water.

"Another important thing to remember is don't hit the waves head-on; you need to angle into them so you don't swamp your boat."

But Gilson said going back to shore is not always an option.

GILSON: "You're in a small boat, you tend to be far from your original point of departure, people tend to try to make it back to from whence they came, but the problem is that can cause them to go into the peak of the storm where they should be trying to seek out the nearest safe haven, and if it's not necessarily back to a mainland, go in the leeward side of an island, somewhere where you get out of the storm."

When you've fallen into the water 

7. Keep your head above water

More than anything else, Rushton and Gilson stressed the importance of trying to keep as much of your body above water as possible in order to avoid or mitigate the effects of hypothermia.

GILSON: "Because of the density of water, you lose body heat 25 times faster in water than you do in air of the same temperature, so you want to get as much of your body weight out of the water as possible so that you're going to lose body heat at a much more reduced rate."

8. Grab onto something

RUSHTON: If you capsize or swamp your boat…"we do not recommend swimming to shore at that point. We recommend that you stay with your boat, especially in stormy conditions because at least it's something to hold onto and keep your head above the water."  

9. Remember, if you can, what attracts lightning

GILSON: "Another thing people tend to ignore is that lightning tends to be attracted to the highest thing around, and on the water oftentimes that's a boat. So if you're out there on a little aluminum boat, aluminum conducts electricity really, really well, and that's not where you want to be."

10. But avoiding hypothermia trumps all

Rushton's advice to grab onto a (potentially) aluminum boat doesn't seem to jive with Gilson's lightning-minded advice. So we asked him what to do if all you have to cling to during a lightning storm is an aluminum-sided boat.

GILSON: "I can answer that with some degree of assuredness: lightning is a lower percentage happening thing to happen, but if you're in the water, that water is surrounding you and progressively cooling your body temperature. So I would definitely be holding on to that boat. That's definitely going to stand a much better chance of your survival."